Augmented reality cockroaches helping to fight phobias

The best way to face your fears may well be to face them, but for hopeless entomophobics (or "insectophobes") the thought of re-enacting the bug room scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom may be too much. Fortunately, academics at the University of Madrid may have found the solution -- the augmented reality virtual bug-fest.

A camera-equipped headset films the desk in front of each participant, and the footage is displayed on a screen. Software then adds swarming cockroaches, and participants reported increased feelings of anxiety even when moving a hand near the virtual bugs.

If anxiety levels can be proved approximate to an encounter with a real phobia-inducing situation, the system could be useful for therapy -- especially with hard-to-source and possibly dangerous animals such as rattlesnakes, black widow spiders or plague rats.

We wonder if the system could be adapted to simulate rejection or going to work in just your underpants.